U.S. home prices rose at slower rate in March

WASHINGTON » U.S. home prices rose in March, but the gains are decelerating as fewer Americans can afford to buy.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 12.4 percent in March compared with 12 months earlier. While healthy, that rate of growth has slowed from both February and January.

Home prices rose in 19 of the 20 cities in March compared with the previous month, with only New York registering a slight decline, Standard & Poor’s reported Tuesday. Leading the gains was San Francisco with a 2.4 percent monthly increase, while prices in Seattle, another hub for technology firms, rose 1.9 percent.

Honolulu is not included in the 20-city index.

Pilgrim’s Pride seeks to take over Hillshire

NEW YORK » Pilgrim’s Pride launched a takeover bid for Hillshire Brands on Tuesday that would expand its business beyond fresh and frozen chicken into a variety of packaged meats, including Ball Park hot dogs and Jimmy Dean sausages.

The $5.58 billion offer could derail Hillshire’s plans to buy Pinnacle Foods, which makes Birds Eye frozen vegetables, Duncan Hines cake mixes and Hungry Man frozen dinners. Hillshire had announced the $4.23 billion deal earlier this month as a way to expand into different parts of the supermarket. But Pilgrim’s Pride says its offer of $45 per share for Hillshire is "substantially superior" and would allow the companies to cut costs by merging some operations and become a "protein leader" that sells more types of meat.

U.S. consumer confidence rose in May

WASHINGTON » U.S. consumers were slightly more confident in the economy in May than in April, partly because of strengthening optimism about future hiring and income gains.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its confidence index rose to 83 from a revised 81.7 in April. That’s the second-highest reading since January 2008, just after the Great Recession began. Only March was higher at 83.9.

Confidence has climbed steadily since it bottomed out at 25.3 in February 2009. It sits significantly above last year’s average of 72.3, but it still isn’t back to healthy levels. The figure regularly topped 90 before the recession.

Streaking S&P 500 hits another high

NEW YORK » More promising signs that the economy is strengthening after its winter slowdown pushed stocks higher Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose for the fourth straight day and ended at another all-time high. It closed above 1,900 for the first time Friday. The S&P 500 rose 11.38 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,911.91.

Membership up again for indie bookstores

NEW YORK » Independent booksellers might never regain the stature of the pre-digital, pre-superstore era, but their presence continues to grow.

The American Booksellers Association, the independents’ trade group, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that core membership has increased to 1,664, up from 1,632 last year and more than 200 higher since 2009. It’s the fifth straight increase for an organization that was losing members for decades and seemed in danger of permanent shrinkage under the combined pressures of Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders, discount clubs and a weak economy. Association CEO Oren Teicher said that independent stores continue to benefit from several factors, from the demise of Borders and slowing of Barnes & Noble to the leveling off of e-book sales and the popularity of the "Buy Local" movement.

Knockoffs a headache for IPO-bound Alibaba

HONG KONG » At first glance the Monster Tron T1 headphones sold on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Tao­bao site are a tempting offer for audiophiles looking for state-of-the-art hi-fi equipment. But sellers omit one key detail: Monster Inc. never produced this model.

Phony headphones and other knockoffs are a persistent problem for Alibaba that has grown more urgent since the company started working on a blockbuster initial public offering of shares in the United States. Analysts say the IPO could raise up to $15 billion.

Founder and Chairman Jack Ma has called theft of intellectual property a "cancer" on society, and Alibaba has stepped up efforts to root out fakes that dent its credibility with consumers, but there are still complaints.

On The Move

» HHF Planners, a Honolulu-based firm that specializes in environmental planning and land use, has promoted Wendie McAllaster to principal from senior associate. She joined HHF in 1996 and has 30 years of professional planning and design experience with expertise as a registered landscape architect, a qualified historic landscape architect and qualified historic preservation planner per the secretary of the interior’s professional standards.

» Emmaus Life Sciences has appointed four new members to its board of directors: 

— Duane Kurisu, chairman and chief executive officer of aio;
— Moni Miya­shita, senior adviser with a global consulting firm;
— Phillip Satow, chairman of the board of JDS Therapeutics;
— Mayu Sris, a founding partner and managing director of Sarissa Capital Management.

Ship Ahoy!